Stadium Progress Halted

Suffolk Council To Take More Time

February 22, 1990|By GEORGE PAASWELL Staff Writer

SUFFOLK — The city's controversial central high school football stadium proposal was stopped at the goal line Wednesday night as the City Council voted against issuing $2.5 million in bonds for the project and rescinded the actual appropriation to the School Board.

With the two actions, the council sent a message to the board that it needed more time to consider a sports stadium proposal. The council directed City Manager John L. Rowe Jr. to meet with the board to discuss new locations for a central stadium.

The proposed stadium had generated hours of debate over the course of two council meetings and drawn emotional comments from residents both for and against. Opposition focused on its location, viewed as too close to Holly Lawn Cemetery. But two high school students presented petitions Wednesday with a total of 773 signatures, all from students, in favor of the proposal.

At a Feb. 7 council meeting, opponents submitted a petition with 1,100 signatures.

"I looked over the signatures ... and 138 were from Riverview," the neighborhood of the proposed site, said Councilman Andrew Damiani, who opposed the stadium. He added that about 85 percent of the residents who signed the petition did not live near the site, but were concerned because of the cemetery.

Opponents were worried that crowds at the stadium would interfere with funerals at the cemetery, and that students would vandalize graves.

Now the council must grapple with where the school football teams will play.

The council agreed to provide the School Board the money it will need to repair the bleachers and playing field at John Yeates High School. That field will serve as a temporary stadium until both the board and council approve a permanent site.

Officials have not ruled out the original proposal, which called for a 5,000-seat stadium at what is known as the City Farm site, behind Suffolk Shopping Center on North Main Street.

Nor have they excluded the idea of football stadiums at the site of the two new high schools the city is building - on Nansemond Parkway and Kenyon Road - but four councilmen spoke against that Wednesday.

"It's not feasible, nor is it fair. We keep talking about two schools and two stadiums ... I am opposed to putting those stadiums at the back door of people who live 50 feet away," said Councilman Ronald Hart.

The vote to deny the bond issue went 4-3, with Councilman Enoch Copeland, Vice Mayor S. Christopher Jones and Mayor Johnnie E. Mizelle dissenting. The vote to rescind the funding was also 4-3, with the same split of councilmen.